i'm a pixel here, myself

Damn you, Padalecki! You just [Jossed] one of the details in highschoolery part 4. You know, the one I finished *yesterday*? I mean, not that it's super-critical, because it's AU already, but I have to resist my nagging desire to go back and change parts 3 and 4 to reflect the fact that his mom is an English teacher. ::headdesk::

All the writeups I've seen on this Paley panel make me wish I lived close enough to go. There's this moment I'm having that's similar to the moment when I first got involved in *NSlash -- when you read reports of or see footage of the guys and they're together and they're obviously crazy about one another, and they play off it... it makes your heart go BOOM. These Paley writeups are having that effect on me.

I found myself with a bunny this morning. And not just any bunny: a fully-formed one with TEETH.

The train of thought that led to this was: in "Shadow" we see more of how Sam is torn between the fight and the desire for a "normal" life. What would cause Dean to long for a normal life? And then it hit me. What if, three months after "Route 666", Cassie wakes up with morning sickness? And she doesn't say anything to Dean, because she wouldn't want to bother him about it, and she knows he has no money for child support, etc. etc. and then one day a year or so after, Dean calls to talk to Cassie about something -- say, he wants her to do some digging in the paper's archives for him -- and her mother answers. When Dean asks if he can talk to Cassie, she, not realizing who is on the phone, tells him that Cassie is "with the baby". Dean is floored, since he can do the math and he knows she wasn't seeing anyone.

And Sam comes in to find him with a half-broken look on his face and is all "what?" and Dean is all "I have a kid." And knowing what family means to Dean, the story evolves from there. Just think about Dean's relationship with his father and how he'd want to be a good father for his own kid.

Also, in this scenario, Cassie is played by Gina Torres, because a) better actor that whomeverthefuck played Cassie in "Route 666", b) smokin' hot -- can you imagine her and Jensen Ackles having a baby? Hotness personified, and c) my mind secretly thinks Zoe/Dean would be amazing, because they're both lieutenants and would get along like a carton of dynamite.

So, you know. Something to think about.

someone please write this omg